Skimlinks Editor & Intelligent Linking: Interview with Alicia Navarro

Half an hour ago Skimlinks, a technology provider used by thousands of website owners for monetization of their online properties, unveiled their new Skimlinks Editor. The new version is said to feature the “world’s first intelligent linking technology.”

To dig a little deeper into what it is and how it works, I’ve connected with the company’s CEO and co-founder, Alicia Navarro — who I interviewed here a few years ago after their first acquisition (of Atma Links) — and I would like to bring you this quick interview today:

GP:In a nutshell, how does Skimlinks Editor works?

AN: The Editor empowers publishers to optimize how they monetize their content by providing them with the information and tools they need at the point of content creation. It alerts publishers when they visit the website of a merchant in the Skimlinks network, telling them how much they pay for referrals, and making it easy to share and/or shorten monetizable links directly from the browser.

GP:I see that the Editor allows publishers “to create links that automatically update to reflect destination changes, reader geography, stock availability, price changes, and more.” What happens when a particular merchant runs out of an item? Will the link automatically find the best possible offer at an online store that does have the product in stock?

AN: Skimlinks Editor updates pricing and availability in as close to real-time as the merchant allows (dependant upon their update schedule). If a merchant runs out of an item, Skimlinks-optimized links update automatically to show alternative competitive merchants with availability.

GP:Do you have plans on making the tool available in any other format but the Google Chrome extension (e.g. as a WordPress plugin or other tools/add-ons)?

AN: A majority of Skimlinks users use Google Chrome and we’ve found that Google’s architecture facilitates development of this type of tool. While we can’t comment on future products, we anticipate continuing to build out Skimlinks Editor functionality in a number of ways.

GP:From the press release we learn that Skimlinks “powered more than $500M in e-commerce sales through its platform in 2013.” This is very impressive. Congratulations! What’s our forecast for the volume of online sales Skimlinks’ technologies will drive in 2014?